The Mercury 4 mission was part of America's Project Mercury, which had the goal of putting a man in orbit. Mercury 4 was the mission that carried American astronaut Virgil "Gus" Grissom into space on July 21, 1961, making him the second American person to travel into space. (The first was Alan Shepard, on May 5, 1961.)
The rocket was known as Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle 8, or MRLV-8. You can see the "MR 8" serial number patch on the side of the rocket at the museum. Redstone rockets were made at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. The head of the Redstone rocket project was Wernher von Braun, who had worked on German V-2 rockets during World War II.
The bell-shaped capsule on the top was originally known as Spacecraft # 11. Gus Grissom renamed it (and the whole Mercury 4 mission) Liberty Bell 7.
The mission itself, from launch to splashdown, lasted 15 minutes, 37 seconds. During that time, Grissom reached a height of 118 miles (190 km). (The capsule did not go into orbit. America's first orbital mission was Mercury 6 with John Glenn, on Feb. 20, 1962.)
After splashdown, Grissom was safely lifted to safety by a helicopter, but the Liberty Bell 7 capsule sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean (which was not the plan, but it was filling with water and was too heavy for the helicopter to lift). There was some controversey over whether or not the capsule's sinking was Grissom's fault.
Grissom was one of the three astronauts who perished in the Apollo 1 fire.
Liberty Bell 7 was ultimately recovered from the bottom of the ocean. It is normally on display at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson, Kansas, but it also goes on tour.
For more information:
- http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/history/mercury/mr-4/mr-4.html
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_4
- http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4201/cover.htm
Author(s): Troy McLuhan (unknown date prior to 2007 December 31)
